As a kid in South Africa, Musk was regularly beaten by bullies; he once was in the hospital for a week after a beating. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father--an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. Musk developed into a man-child, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. In 2022, after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth, Musk was secretly buying up shares of Twitter. Now he had a chance to own the playground. Isaacson fills in the tales of triumphs and turmoil, addressing the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

Prologue: Muse of fire -- Adventurers -- A mind of his own: Pretoria, the 1970s -- Life with father: Pretoria, the 1980s -- The seeker: Pretoria, the 1980s -- Escape velocity: Leaving South Africa, 1989 -- Canada: 1989 -- Queen's: Kingston, Ontario, 1990-1991 -- Penn: Philadelphia, 1992-1994 -- Go west: Silicon Valley, 1994-1995 -- Zip2: Palo Alto, 1995-1999 -- Justine: Palo Alto, the 1990s -- X.com: Palo Alto 1999-2000 -- The coup: PayPal, September 2000 -- Mars: SpaceX, 2001 -- Rocket man: SpaceX, 2002 -- Fathers and sons: Los Angeles, 2002 -- Revving up: SpaceX, 2002 -- Musk's rules for rocket-building: SpaceX, 2002-2003 -- Mr. Musk goes to Washington: SpaceX, 2002-2003 -- Founders: Tesla, 2003-2004 -- The roadster: Tesla, 2004-2006 -- Kwaj: SpaceX, 2005-2006 -- Two strikes: Kwaj, 2006-2007 -- The SWAT team: Tesla, 2006-2008 -- Taking the wheel: Tesla, 2007-2008 -- Divorce: 2008 -- Talulah: 2008 -- Strike three: Kwaj, August 3, 2008 -- On the brink: Tesla and SpaceX, 2008 -- The fourth launch: Kwaj, August-September 2008 -- Saving Tesla: December 2008 -- The Model S: Tesla, 2009 -- Private space: SpaceX, 2009-2010 -- Falcon 9 liftoff: Cape Canaveral, 2010 -- Marrying Talulah: September 2010 -- Manufacturing: Tesla, 2010-2013 -- Musk and Bezos: SpaceX, 2013-2014 -- The falcon hears the falconer: SpaceX, 2014-2015 -- The Talulah roller coaster: 2012-2015 -- Artificial intelligence: OpenAI, 2012-2015 -- The launch of autopilot: Tesla, 2014-2016 -- Solar: Tesla energy, 2004-2016 -- The boring company: 2016 -- Rocky relationships: 2016-2017 -- Descent into the dark: 2017 -- Fremont factory hell: Tesla, 2018 -- Open-loop warning: 2018 -- Fallout: 2018 -- Grimes: 2018 -- Shanghai: Tesla, 2015-2019 -- Cybertruck: Tesla, 2018-2019 -- Starlink: SpaceX, 2015-2018 -- Starship: SpaceX, 2018-2019 -- Autonomy day: Tesla, April 2019 -- Giga Texas: Tesla, 2020-2021 -- Family life: 2020 -- Full throttle: SpaceX, 2020 -- Bezos vs. Musk, round 2: SpaceX, 2021 -- Starship surge: SpaceX, July 2021 -- Solar surge: summer 2021 -- Nights out: summer, 2021 -- Inspiration4: SpaceX, September 2021 -- Raptor shake-up: SpaceX, 2021 -- Optimus is born: Tesla, August 2021 -- Neuralink: 2017-2020 -- Vision only: Tesla, January 2021 -- Money: 2021-2022 -- Father of the year: 2021 -- Politics: 2020-2022 -- Ukraine: 2022 -- Bill Gates: 2022 -- Active investor: Twitter, January-April 2022 -- "I made an offer": Twitter, April 2022 -- Hot and cold: Twitter, April-June 2022 -- Fathers day: June 2022 -- Starbase shake-up: SpaceX, 2022 -- Optiumus Prime: Tesla, 2021-2022 -- Uncertainty: Twitter, July-September 2022 -- Optimus unveiled: Tesla, September, 2022 -- Robotaxi: Tesla, 2022 -- "Let that sink in": Twitter, October 26-27, 2022 -- The takeover: Twitter, Thursday, October 27, 2022 -- The three musketeers: Twitter, October 26-30, 2022 -- Content moderation: Twitter, October 27-30, 2022 -- Halloween: Twitter, October 2022 -- Blue checks: Twitter, November 2-10, 2022 -- All in: Twitter, November 10-18, 2022 -- Hardcore: Twitter, November 18-30, 2022 -- Miracles: Neuralink, November 2022 -- The Twitter files: Twitter, December 2022 -- Rabbit holes: Twitter, December 2022 -- Christmas capers: December 2022 -- AI for cars: Tesla, 2022-2023 -- AI for humans: X.AI, 2023 -- The starship launch: SpaceX, April 2023.